If you’re going to take pictures, they might as well be viewed by as many people as possible. Whether photography is your hobby or profession, the internet offers a unique platform to share your skill with the world.
Furthermore, if you have a website you’re trying to grow, effectively displayed visual content is one of the top ways to do so. Studies show that content accompanied by images get 94% more views than content without. If you make your photos easily accessible, you can attract more visitors with whom to engage and appreciate your photography. According to viddedit, these are the most effective ways to display your awesome photography online.
Consider your Navigation
Users like a website they can navigate without too much difficulty. Ease of navigation therefore protracts a positive image. However, if your site is not so user friendly, visitors and prospective clients might be distracted and look negatively upon your work. Therefore, consider your navigation, and make it easy and natural as possible to use.
Maintain a High Contrast
Depending on the style of photography, a black background helps images stand out more. This is mainly due to there being more contrast with the colour black than when viewing an image against a white background. Your images will appear more striking and vivid, because contrast brings out the colours of a photo. If your work involves nature, HDR, sports, commercial or portrait photography, you can observe the difference when you view your images on both black and white backgrounds. However, always remember that while black and white can be highly effective, you can add a bit more personality with a touch of colour.
Order Photos Strategically
Naturally, when you want to generate interest for any product, you either start or finish with the strongest selling points. Your weaker points (if any) are usually left somewhere in the middle. This method of arranging will draw in potential customers and grab their attention at the start, or leave them with strong points they will remember (at the end). This means that you should place your strongest photos at the beginning or at the end of your webpage or online portfolio, in order to influence users as best you can.
Don’t stuff your pages with too many images
Sometimes, there might be a large collection of images you want to add to your online portfolio. It’s best to try and limit your selection and use just the strongest images.
Your users will see only the best of the best, and if they want to see more, they’ll get in touch accordingly. In addition, your display will appear more structured and defined, as too many images provide the viewer with more options than necessary. Services such as Flickr are great to use when you want to publish a large collection of your photos.
Add useful information with each photo
If it’s possible to provide a little bit of information about each photo, then you should. Not every item has to have a title, but descriptions such as the location of the photo in question and the model or company you shot for are essential. Your users like to know such things and will feel better informed as a result. Every little snippet counts, and the more effort you put into your online photography display, the more passionate you will seem to potential clients. For instance, they could be huge fans of your photos and might want to hire you to do some work for them.
Watermark photos for protection
With today’s technology, it’s incredibly easy for anyone, anywhere, to steal a copy of your images – no matter how hard you try to protect them. Whether you set them as background images or disable right click, almost any tech-savvy user can still access them. However, don’t let online thieves discourage you from displaying your awesome photography online.
The only real way to protect your work is to embed watermarks into the JPEG’s; the larger the watermark, the better. This way, even if your photos are illegally obtained, the watermark will always be evident for anyone to see. Sadly, there are a couple of downsides to using watermarks, including the time it will take to process your images. Also, the images won’t look as good, as a watermark will distract focus from actual subject matter.
Let your users find you with ease
No matter how good your work, it will be difficult to find further employment if your users can’t contact you. In addition to finding Cheap NZ Domains to build an online photography portfolio, adding contact details to your site is essential. Such details should also be easy to find, whether it’s a phone number on every page, an email address in the footer or indeed a whole contact page. There are no rules when it comes to adding your contact details, as long as the information you upload is correct. A simple phone number might not be sufficient, as some users may prefer to get in touch via email. So, take all your users into consideration before making your final decision.
Remember to Update
Images are everywhere, and people have become used to seeing new material each time they visit a website. Leaving content on your website for too long will become boring. You make the rules about how often you update, but it’s best to do so each time you have fresh content. Instead of uploading in batches and removing a handful of pictures every now and again, try to maintain a consistent, yet flexible schedule. When you update, aim for content that reflects a growing and strengthening of your skill-set. This means that your new content should always be stronger than what was published previously.
As you push forward with working on effective ways to display your photography online, you’ll learn a lot more about new tools and tips. Continue to experiment, but always keep the needs of your users in mind.
